Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Chicken

Well, it's chicken night, again!!!! Tonight since I don't work until 10 pm, I'm preparing a delicious recipe (something new of course) for the family. It is going to be a bacon wrapped stuffed (with cream cheese, onions, chives) chicken. Also I made a chocolate cake from scratch and I'm going to drizzle caramel over it and inside of it!!! It might be covered with the rest of the cream cheese frosting I have left. YUMMY!! Any who, here is the recipe for the 1 person that's following!

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

4 Boneless Skinless chicken breast halves

4 oz of cream cheese with rehydrated minced onions and chives (I put the onions and chives in a tea steeper and rehydrated with boiling water for about a minute. I also substituted Kraft® mexican cheese for Josh and the boys)

4-8 slices of bacon (depending on how much you really LOVE bacon)

Salt (to taste)

1 tablespoon butter or margarine.

Preheat the oven to 400•. Between 2 sheets of wax paper with a mallet (or in my case the rolling pin) flatten the chicken breasts to 1/2" thickness.

Spread the cream cheese (or mexican cheese) on each chicken breast. Place a small amount, 1/4 of the butter on each piece of chicken on top of the cheese. Season with salt. Roll the chicken up and wrap the bacon around the chicken, secure with a toothpick to hold it together.

Bake uncovered in a baking pan for 35-40 minutes. • Or until the juices run clear.

Turn on the broiler and broil chicken about 6" from the heat for about 5 minutes or until bacon is crispy.

Now, for my chocolate cake, I just used Hersey's ® Cocoa powder and followed the directions on the back of the container for the cake. My frosting I've been keeping a secret for quite some time, but I'll share the carrot cake recipe the next time I make a cake..... Be on the look out!! YUMMY!!!!

A duck! A duck!!

We have a baby duckling hatching today! Very excited about this hatch! This is our first duck to hatch. I have someone interested in getting the duck for her granddaughter which is very exciting for me. As I've found a home for the one right now. He/She will live here for a couple weeks, and than go on to it's palace. Lol. Apparently her "daddy to be" is building a palace for the duckling. At least I know it will be well taken care of. I also got a cochin egg this morning. It's about time Henny! Sheesh! We are going to incubate this one and a rhode island red egg, we want to find out what the "mutt" chicken will look like. All in all I'm very excited about all this hatching. We are also getting a Jersey giant rooster this weekend. So that little miss Cheese will have someone to rendezvous with in the future. And have huge chickens!!!! On to other things today...

TnChickHen

Little Turkey

Well, a little turkey hatched the other night! Adorable as all get out (ok, it's pretty ugly). We are hoping to raise it for meat, but the way that it goes, I'm sure it won't end up that way. He/she is pretty big compared to our one little easter egger that hatched this week as well. I'm waiting on 2 muscovy ducklings to hatch as well!! It sure is an adventure to hatch these guys. This next week, I'm going to put a rhode island red/dorking cross egg in the incubator. I just want to see how it comes out! It'll be really interesting! I'm hoping to pick up a Black Jersey Giant Rooster this weekend for my hubby. Our little Cheese is turning out to be a.... female. On to the life of a farmer....

TnChickHen

French Cooked Chicken

Here is a recipe I'm going to try tonight with a whole chicken. Don't worry, it's not one of our girls!! Or boys for that matter... but if that barred rock rooster out there continues to pick on the others, HE might make it to the dutch oven pot........ Bon Appetit!

The cooking times are for a 41/2- to 5-pound bird. A 31/2- to 41/2-pound chicken will take about an hour to cook, and a 5- to 6-pound bird will take close to 2 hours.

Use a 5- to 8-quart Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid.

French Chicken in a Pot

Start to finish: 2 hours (20 minutes active)

Servings: 4

1 whole roasting chicken (41/2 to 5 pounds), giblets removed and discarded, wings tucked under back

2 teaspoons kosher salt or 1 teaspoon table salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

1 small celery stalk, chopped (about 1/4 cup)

6 medium garlic cloves, peeled and trimmed

1 bay leaf

1 medium sprig fresh rosemary (optional)

1/2 to 1 teaspoon lemon juice

1. Adjust an oven rack to lowest position. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

2. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper.

3. In a large Dutch oven over medium, heat the oil until just smoking. Add the chicken, breast-side down. Scatter the onion, celery, garlic, bay leaf, and rosemary around chicken.

4. Cook until the breast is lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Using a wooden spoon inserted into cavity of bird, flip chicken breast-side up and cook until chicken and vegetables are well browned, 6 to 8 minutes.

5. Remove the Dutch oven from the heat. Place a large sheet of foil over the pot, then cover tightly with the lid.

6. Transfer the pot to the oven and cook until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees when inserted in thickest part of breast and 175 degrees in thickest part of thigh, about 80 to 110 minutes.

7. Transfer the chicken to carving board, tent with foil and let rest for 20 minutes.

8. Meanwhile, strain chicken juices from the pot through fine-mesh strainer into a fat separator, pressing on solids to extract liquid. Discard the solids. You should have about 3/4 cup of juices).

9. Allow the liquid to settle 5 minutes, then pour into a saucepan and set over low heat.

10. Carve the chicken, adding any accumulated juices to the saucepan. Stir lemon juice into the saucepan to create the jus, or sauce. Serve the chicken, passing jus at table.

It's Done!!!

Our chicken coop is finished! Josh finished most of it while I was at work Saturday night. It's fantastic. I'm glad we finally got it done, because it's been in the 30s at night lately. Not cold for us, but cold for the chickens I'm sure. All we need to do now is get sand for the flooring and paint it, and we will be on our way to being finished with it! I want to thank him so much! He did such a great job. And he worked hard on it as well!!! Picture coming soon.....


TnChickHen